It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys and invites bloggers to recap what they’ve read this week while planning ahead on what to read next! Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers added their own twist by focusing on kidlit, from picture books up to YA.

Here’s what I read last week:

(Click on the book covers to add these titles to your Goodreads TBR piles)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin’s Press, 2013
YA Realistic Fiction
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
Oh, how I loved this book. This wasn’t really a surprise because I have loved everything Rainbow Rowell has ever written. Fangirl is smart, funny and the excerpts from the Simon Snow books are fantastic. Definitely did not want this one to end. Great book!

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Clarion Books, 2010
MG/YA Historical FIction
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
Two parallel stories of life in Sudan, one in 1985, and the other in 2008. Powerful story lines that will have students on the edge of their seats.

Take 5 For Language Arts by Kaye Hagler
Maupin House, 2011
Professional Development
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
This is a large volume of bell ringers for secondary language arts classrooms that are aligned with the common core and involve a lot of critical thinking. The activities in this book have a  lot of potential and I loved the self assessment for students. I do think, however, that many of the activities would take longer than five minutes, which is not that big of a deal if you have the time to spare. This is a great book for enrichment and critical thinking.

Reading Poetry in the Middle Grades by Paul Janeczko
Heinemann 2011
Professional Development
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
This is the collection of poems and supplemental activities that I have been searching for to use in my classroom on a regular basis! Janeczko has chosen great poems, and created excellent activities to go with them. I love the Why I Adore This Poem, Meeting the Poem, Getting to Know the Poem, and Knowing the Poem Forever sections. The graphic organizers look promising and easy for students to understand. I really like how a lot of the poems can be used together. This will definitely be used in my classroom.

My reread of the week…

Last week I decided to reread Divergent and Insurgent in preparation for the release of Allegiant. It was really cool to revisit this book that I loved so much the first time around. It was interesting to be able to picture the characters now that I know who will be playing them in the movie that will hit theaters in March. I have mixed feelings about Allegiant‘s release – I definitely want to know how the story ends, but I am not ready to say goodbye to these characters, especially Four!

Here’s what I plan to read this week: (Click on the cover for more info from Goodreads)

Touchblue and Shadow and Bone  were summer finds at the Scholastic Warehouse and our local used bookstore. I found The Coldest GIrl in Coldtown on Kindle for less than $5.00 and I will have to make sure I grab Insurgent from my classroom library before one of my sixth graders gets to it. A lot of the students in the gifted ELA class I am teaching this quarter are really into this series right now and I can’t believe I actually snagged Divergent last week.

Happy Reading!

Lesley ♥